SWIMMING UPSTREAM TO PREVENT HOMELESSNESS

By John Grossi

The New Year’s resolution for the Long Beach Rescue Mission is this: Go upstream. Give help sooner rather than later.

Here’s how.

This month (January 2025), the Long Beach Rescue Mission breaks ground on a brand-new shelter called “The Timothy House,” designed specifically for young men ages 18-24.

“The need for this shelter in our community is already too big and growing,” says Executive Director Jeff Levine.

I Can’t Imagine…

Imagine graduating high school while experiencing homelessness and then having nowhere to go. You can only live out of a car with your mom … or bounce around to couches of your friends and family… for so long.

Maybe you get a job and an apartment for a few years but then get let go from the job. Most twenty-somethings would move back in with their parents until they get back on their feet. But what if you grew up in the foster system, bouncing around from house-to-house until you were put on your own at age 18 with no real place to call home?

Or maybe a broken home and absent parents during your teenage years led you to a path of addiction in your twenties… what if you want to change your life but your parents have disowned you? Or are in jail? Where do you go?

These are some of the real stories of the eight young men I interviewed for this article and the stories of their challenges are heartbreaking, personal, complex, and much too much for their young age.

Most were younger than me, and I couldn’t help but thinking… gosh my life has been so much easier, but man… I don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t have my parents to lean on...

I know people much older and with much steadier jobs and lifestyles who are struggling to keep up with rent. Imagine being 20 years old, no savings, no one to fall back on, no path, no nothing.

A Common Need

Their backgrounds are different, but they agree on one thing. They need a place to stay. “You sleep at the metro station awhile and you realize you want some shelter,” said one of the young men. But that’s not all they share in common.

Something was different about this group than other clients of the Long Beach Rescue Mission I’ve interviewed.

Almost every past resident I’ve met at the Long Beach Rescue Mission has had an overarching and overwhelming gratefulness and thankfulness for the “blessing that was the mission” in their lives.

But that wasn’t so much the sentiment of this group. In fact, there was almost no sentiment at all other than, “This is where we are now.” Or, “Then someone told me about this place.”

To be honest, their thoughts on the mission were a bit underwhelming, until I thought about their stories and realized how alarmingly normal being at this shelter was for most of them.

No, for these residents—the shelter didn’t strike them as a “blessing,” but more of a short-term solution to the situation they were just in before.

Short term solutions are what they’ve been used to for far too long.

Some had been in shelters before, many had slept in cars or on the street. Many came from broken families, incarcerated dads, neglectful moms. Many (but not all) had used drugs to cope. Many (but not all) cited mental health issues.

You could say this lot was “homeless,” but a more accurate way to describe them would be “never truly had a home.” And so now, they’ve ended up at the Long Beach Rescue Mission.

Building A Long-Term Solution

Over the past few years, something has become clear to the staff at the Long Beach Rescue Mission’s “Samaritan House” for men. Young men under the age of 24 have different needs than the older men. Whereas many of the older residents need help tackling mental health issues and finding housing, these younger men, many of whom have never truly had a home or a traditional upbringing, need help with what Executive Director Jeff Levine calls “soft skills.”

Moreover, they don’t so much just need to “find housing” as they need to develop a trade or go to school and set up the rest of their lives. They need a long-term solution, and they need to stop thinking about life as a series of short-term fixes. Also, they need their own space away from the older residents.

So that’s this year’s project for the Long Beach Rescue Mission. To build the “Timothy House” as the mission’s own long-term solution to house young men ages 18-24, facing unimaginable obstacles, and help them develop soft skills and a long-term plan. For many, the Timothy House will serve as the first home where a future off the streets feels possible.

When the most vulnerable young members of our community can learn skills, develop their faith, and allow the hope of tomorrow to beat out yesterday’s sorrows, that’s like turning off a faucet. A small yet powerful act that can prevent a flood.